The Other Draco
by Swallow B
Summary: Draco Malfoy was an only child, but he wasn't lonely. There was the Other Draco. Based on Vera Rozalsky's story, 'Paterfamilias'.


The Other Draco

Disclaimer : The characters and basic plot belong to JK Rowling. The Other Draco is based on and inspired by Vera Rozalsky's story, Paterfamilias. Please read it first or this might not make sense.

Note : Just to make things clear, I am absolutely NOT condoning infanticide.

To Vera, who is a wonderful writer (hope you like it).

OOO

Draco Malfoy was an only child, but he was not lonely. There was the Other Draco.

Draco could not remember when they had met. The Other Draco had always been there, just like Mother and Father and the house-elves.

The Other Draco looked like Draco, but with a few differences. His traits were softer, his cheeks fuller and his hair curlier. The Other Draco came when Draco was playing alone in the nursery or in the park and they played together. Then, when it was time for dinner. the Other Draco disappeared. Draco had dinner with Mother and Father who taught him Table Manners. Then Draco would take his bath with Dobby the house-elf. Mother or Father would come to tell him a story, an old Tale of Beedle the Bard, a story about a mysterious boy called Harry Potter that Draco would meet when he was old enough to go to school or some funny jokes about the nine red-haired Weasleys who lived in a pigsty. Then Draco's parents would kiss him goodnight and leave him in the dark.

Draco wasn't afraid of the dark, because as soon as it was dark, the Other Draco came.

When Draco was very small, the Other Draco used to claim Draco's toys, Draco's bed and even Draco's green pyjamas with the pattern of grey snakes as his own. They argued a lot about that, until they agreed that toys, bed and pyjamas belonged to both of them. The Other Draco didn't need pyjamas anyway. He was already wearing a pair that was pale green and see-through. Actually, the whole of the Other Draco's body was pale and see-through. Draco could see everything that was behind him.

When the Other Draco tried to snuggle into Draco's bed with him, it made the bed icy -cold. No amount of blankets could warm it up. So Draco didn't let the Other Draco into his bed and they had arguments about that too.

After a few years, the Other Draco stopped saying Draco's toys and clothes were his.

Draco made his toy dragon spit fire.

'Can you do this?'

'No, I can't, but I am free and you are not.'

That was a funny thing to say. Draco asked Mother about it, but Mother got cross.

'Don't talk nonsense,' she said. 'There is no Other Draco.'

Draco didn't dare ask Father.

Draco was happiest when he flew on his broom, when he left the earth beneath him and soared towards the top of the trees, feeling the wind on his face and in his robes. The Other Draco stayed on the ground, watching him. Once he tried to get on a broom tagether with Draco, but he couldn't get a grip on it. He tried to hold on to Draco , but Draco felt his insides turning to ice and couldn't leave the ground.

The Other Draco couldn't fly, but he still claimed 'I am free and you are not.'

That was annoying and very silly. Who was free, the boy who could fly above the trees or the boy who stayed on the ground?

Draco asked Uncle Severus. He knew Uncle Severus only answered questions when you really wanted the answer, but by now, Draco really wanted the answer.

Uncle Severus's skin, that was usually a greyish yellow, went very white, nearly as white as the Other Draco's.

'Yes,' he said. 'That boy is a ghost. But don't tell anyone.'

Uncle Severus went on to explain that ghosts were dead people's shadows that had been left behind.

When Draco went to Hogwarts, he met the Bloody Baron. Like the Other Draco, the Bloody Baron was cold and transparent. Unlike the Other Draco, he was old and could do magic. At Hogwarts there were lots of ghosts and they showed themselves to everybody. Uncle Severus, who was now to be called Professor Snape, got on well with the Bloody Baron. Both of them were fiercely protective of the Slytherins and frightened everyone else.

The Other Draco didn't come to Hogwarts. When Draco came home. he told him all about school, about Harry Potter and how everybody was unfair to Slytherin. The Other Draco listened wide-eyed. He had never gone to school.

When the Chamber of Secrets was opened, Father made Draco stay at school for Christmas to keep watch. This was Draco's first Christmas without the Other Draco.

At the end of the year, Draco told the Other Draco everything that had happened. The Other Draco was most intrigued by Mudbloods.

'Don't their parents give them a drink?' he asked.

Draco had no idea what he meant.

At the end of Draco's fourth year, the Dark Lord returned. Potter said so and so did Dumbledore. Malfoy Manor became a busy place, full of mysterious meetings. The Other Draco sat in silence, watching.

A year later. Father was arrested as a Death Eater. Theo Nott came to stay at the Manor because his father had been arrested too and he didn't have a mother. It was all Potter's fault. Professor Snape said a silly boy like Potter couldn't triumph over such powerful wizards as Lucius Malfoy and Alfred Nott, it was the Order of the Phoenix's fault. But Draco wanted to hate Potter.

Then the Dark Lord honoured Draco above all others, choosing to make him a Death Eater at the age of sixteen.

The day Draco took the Mark was the last time he saw the Other Draco.

'I am free, but you are not,' the other Draco told him again.

Draco worked very hard at Occlumency so that Aunt Bellatrix would not find out about the Other Draco.

At school, Draco sought solace with Moaning Myrtle, but she was an ugly whiny girl. The Other Draco never whined.

At the end of the year, Professor Snape killed Dumbledore and all hell broke loose. The following year was constant fear and loneliness, until Draco saw with his own eyes the dead body of the monster on the floor of the Great Hall at Hogwarts, and until, to his surprise, Potter testified in his favour and he walked free. When Draco forced himself to thank him, Potter muttered something like 'it's what Professor Snape would have wanted'.

OOO

So years later, when Scorpius Malfoy questioned his father about the Other Scorpius, Draco said,

'I know, son. He is free and you are not. But don't tell anyone.'


End file.
